Various instruments adapted to cut or incise material have been known in the prior art in various forms. Blades and other unitary objects are likely one of the oldest tools known to mankind and are still widely utilized in everyday life in many applications. Of course, the concept of a cutting blade is carried out in a variety of forms where a portion of the blade has a very fine surface area creating very high pressures which are adapted to incise material. With shearing scissors or the like, two blades are utilized to create a shearing highly focused pressure to cut (incise) material. It is also possible to have two adjacent fixed blades arranged in a manner to cut material such as straps or cord, for example.
In emergency situations where it is desirable to expeditiously incise material, a device such as a seat belt-like cutter is very advantageous for removal of individuals from vehicles. Of course such a tool is utilized for many different types of activities other than cutting the straps of seatbelts. However, in particular, a tool adapted to cut seat belt or other restraining device is a necessary tool for emergency response personnel. Of course such a tool can further be utilized to strip wire or any other type of cutting operation desired by the operator of the tool.
Multi-tools are well known in the art and essentially comprise a handle region and a type of pliers-like region which in many forms is a common needle nose-like pliers device, and in the broader scope can be a number of lever-like devices such as shearing members, etc. However, as described herein there are particular challenges for adapting a dual-fixed blade incising device to such a multi-tool.
In order to properly incise material with the two blades in a shearing like action, the blades in a preferred form forcefully engage one another to prevent any separation thereof. The embodiments below illustrate having the two cutting blades in forceful engagement with one another while positioned in a relatively compact manner to properly fit within the handle region of the multi-tool.